Chris Woakes admitted England will have to “go back to the drawing board” when considering their plans for batting against Yasir Shah during the remainder of the series with Pakistan following the leg-spinner’s five-wicket haul on the second day at Lord’s.
Yasir, bowling in his first Test innings outside Asia, gutted the home side’s middle order with figures of five for 64, using subtle variation rather than any considerable turn to become the first wrist spinner on the honours board since Mushtaq Ahmed, his coach, 20 years ago.
Woakes will resume unbeaten on 31 on Saturday alongside Stuart Broad (11) having himself claimed figures of six for 70 in Pakistan’s first innings and was honest when assessing the efforts of those above him in the batting order.
“Yasir has taken five wickets and he’s bowled well but we will be disappointed with a couple of the dismissals,” he said. “It’s a pretty good pitch and he got a couple to turn and slide. We will have to go back to the drawing board and talk about how best to go forward, not just tomorrow but later in the series.”
On the dismissal of Joe Root, whose top-edged sweep on 48 started a collapse in which six wickets were lost for 114 runs, Woakes said: “If he had hit that for six or a one-bounce four, we would have been clapping. It’s a shot he plays well and we’re encouraged to take our options on. I’m sure he won’t shy away from that shot again.
“We are still in a decent position and by no means out of it. Me and Broady have an important job in the morning and, with a decent start, we could look to get level and possibly even a lead. Get that and the pressure goes back on them. There are no demons in the pitch.”
On a personal level Woakes continues a fine summer back in the side and has now guaranteed it will not be he who makes way when Ben Stokes returns to full fitness. On his maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket, sealed in the morning when the dangerous Sarfraz Ahmed slapped the ball to backward point on 25, he added: “It was a nice feeling to lift the ball to the Lord’s crowd.”
Yasir, who now has 81 wickets from 13 Tests, claimed his job in the side, certainly bowling in the first innings, was to provide support to the three seam bowlers in Pakistan’s attack given conditions in England differ greatly from those in their adopted home of the United Arab Emirates.
Using Mushtaq, the Pakistan bowling coach, as an interpreter, he said: “My role, from the coaches, was very clear – to give support to the fast bowlers. I was concentrating on repeating my action again and again – and my natural variation helped me get the five wickets.
“In UAE you have to bowl quicker because off the pitch batsmen can read you and they can play a good ball on the back foot. Here in England, because the pitches have some pace, obviously I am going to vary my pace. I was just concentrating on line. And I was trying to spin the ball as much as I can.”
Yasir’s performance took much of the focus away from Mohammad Amir, whose return to the scene of the 2010 spot-fixing scandal, despite the odd cry of “no-ball” when sending down his first delivery, was met with polite applause from the Lord’s crowd.
Mushtaq added: “Amir was nervous today and I want to say thank you to the spectators for being good to him. They just want to see a good cricketer playing good cricket.”
